I'm setting a forum for my students and I want to register them all automatically at the beginning of the semester. I have a mysql database with all their names and personal data.
Is it enough that I fill the "user" table in the MyBB database, via a php script? Or should I update other tables too?
And, how should I fill the password fields?
I am not sure about this, but I think you would have to manually register all students via MyBB. While the SQL file you have has all the students personal data, it isn't enough to fill all the columns in the user table.
But I could be completely wrong.
Actually I think you can just put in the username, a password salt and has (which we can give you if necessary) and an email address, because that's all that's really unique; all the other columns should be filled via the defaults for the columns.
Not every column has a default, so you have to manually set the default for them.
I converted from a proprietary forum system to MyBB so I had to do the same thing basically.
As for password, if there is any data that only the students themselves know such as their student id number or birthday, you could use that as an initial password. Otherwise you'd have to randomly generate one and have it mailed to them. Or you could have MyBB send them one with the 'forgot password' function.
As for other tables: depending on the data you have about your students, you may want to add some data to the mybb_userfields table (user profile) too. Create some custom profile fields beforehand if necessary.
The private messages table for the user is initialized by MyBB on demand I think, so you don't have to do any other modifications.